Good food, great pastries and wonderful hospitality--I'm so glad I managed to get in on the Turkish Food Festival held at the Bosphorus Center in Garden Grove just before it ended.
From the street, this Garden Grove mosque looks like a ranch style house. Only balloons fluttering outside revealed that something was happening--a festival outside in back.
Crowds had been there earlier, but by evening they were gone. Then it was quiet and relaxed, and there was still plenty to eat. At the top, Selda Tok holds a plate of yogurt-covered ground beef dumplings called manti (pronounced mantuh).
Here's a closer look at the dish. Turkish groceries stock frozen manti, but this was the real thing, each tiny dumpling filled, folded and pinched by hand. I could appreciate the work involved because I did it myself--once.
The pastry table was sheer heaven. There I found this flour halwa, dark brown and nutty tasting from flour browned in butter.
This is kalbura basti, a syrup-soaked sweet sprinkled with pistachios.
Baklava was liberally stuffed with chopped walnuts.
These flaky filo pastries were filled with thickened sweet bechamel and walnuts.
This is the menu of savory dishes.
And here is where they were served.
To finish the evening, a cup of strong Turkish coffee, properly foamy on top.
This set of coffee cups from Turkey was on sale in a booth that displayed modest Islamic clothing, jewelry, scarves, shawls and many other items.
What made the festival especially appealing was the hospitality. Turkish people are known for their warm reception of guests, and my friends and I sat chatting with two of the women in charge, Selda Tok and Ebru Awad, as if we were guests in their homes.
The kitchen was run by Atike King, who gathered a team of "sisters"--I like the way they call each other that--who worked for days preparing the food. All were volunteers.
The three-day festival was their first, and I hope they'll schedule another next year. Being small, it was more intimate and fun than large fairs jammed with booths, games and crowds. And it provided a rare opportunity to taste genuine Turkish dishes, prepared with care and expertise developed over generations.
Recent Comments